Apologia

Apologia.  Most homeschoolers are familiar with this name.  I know I turned to Apologia several years ago when I was looking for a good science curriculum to use with my daughters.  Since that time, we have used nothing but Apologia with my older daughter. We have used both their elementary science books by Jeannie Fulbright and their high school level courses by Dr. Jay Wile. Not only are these books of extremely high quality, but they are written from a Christian perspective. Though we’ll never be “science lovers”, we are getting a good grounding in the sciences, thanks to these great products.

The Crew will be reviewing one (or more) of three choices sent out to them from Apologia:

EXPLORING CREATION WITH ZOOLOGY 1: FLYING CREATURES OF THE FIFTH DAY
In this book, your children will begin exploring the dynamics of flight and animal classification, understanding why the design we see in these incredible creatures points us to our Creator God. Then, get ready for the exciting adventure of learning about birds. Your children will learn how to attract various bird species to your yard and identify them by looking at their special physical characteristics, diverse nests, and interesting domestic practices. They will also learn the anatomy and the glorious design that enables birds to do remarkable things. After becoming amateur ornithologists, your children will explore the world of chiropterology, which is the study of bats.

EXPLORING CREATION WITH GENERAL SCIENCE (2nd edition)
This course is designed to be a student’s first systematic introduction to the sciences. Although it can be used for eighth grade (especially if the student has recently left the public schools), it is typically used best in the seventh grade. The course covers such topics as the scientific method, designing experiments, simple machines, archaeology, geology, paleontology, biology, and human anatomy and physiology. Its scope, therefore, is quite wide. There are many hands-on experiments to do, and they all use household items.

EXPLORING CREATION WITH BIOLOGY (2nd edition)
This course is designed to be the student’s first high school science course and is a college-prep biology course that provides a detailed introduction to the methods and concepts of general biology. Heavily emphasizing the vocabulary of biology, it provides the student with a strong background in the scientific method, the five-kingdom classification scheme, microscopy, biochemistry, cellular biology, molecular and Mendelian genetics, evolution, dissection, and ecosystems. It also provides a complete survey of the five kingdoms in Creation. Students who take and understand this course will be very well-prepared for a tough university biology course.

We have used all 3 of these in our home (my oldest is doing the Biology this year).

Check back here to see what the rest of the Crew has to say about these science courses from Apologia Educational Ministries.
(Crew, please sign with your name and which science program you reviewed. Thanks)

12 thoughts on “Apologia”

  1. I use all of the Apologia published programs in my school. It is only science I fully recommend to my families, and is the only science course my on-site or special needs students use because it is that beneficial. I was sent Flying Creatures and Biology 2nd Edition, but I love them all.

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  2. I didn't really know what to expect with Apologia. Now I don't think I'll ever use any other text books for science except Apologia. This is a very detailed study of science for a pretty reasonable price too. 🙂

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  3. I had heard of these but never taken a look. These are great! Love the extensive information that is easy for kids to understand. Also, the entertaining way she writes engages the kids in the learning. I will definitely recommend these.

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  4. I was so impressed with Flying Creatures, I am planning to buy all of the other elementary level volumes. It is a beautiful, well-written book!

    Janet C

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  5. Jay Wile makes higher level sciences easier to understood. I am anxious to see his other products in the future. I recommend any of his convention speaker sessions, too.

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  6. I have not found any other text book over the years that provides the same flexibility and quality teaching of the Young Explorer Series.

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  7. The next time you start to doubt your ability to teach the upper level sciences at home simply visit the Apologia website or open one of their amazing textbooks and read. With engaging text, easy to implement household lab science experiments and tests to capture the learning, upper level homeschool science education is within your grasp. Apologia Science really does make it that easy.

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  8. I don't recommend the Apologia science curriculum for use by Christian students.

    I used Apologia Chemistry (1st edition) as a teacher in a classical high school, and was actually very disappointed with it. It had a number of conceptual, factual, and historical errors, even in the chapter of Dr. Wile's expertise, which is nuclear chemistry. Some of the labs and demonstrations needed re-working before I could use them.

    I've paged through the 2nd edition Chemistry textbook, and it appears that some of the factual errors have been corrected.

    Paging through other high school Apologia books, I see misrepresentation of earth science principles (my area of expertise) and an environmental perspective that is based more on ideology than science.

    There are positive aspects to the Apologia books, such as ease of use by non-scientist parents, but for me the negatives outweigh the positives.

    Kevin N ( http://geochristian.wordpress.com )

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  9. I found Apologia upper science last year, and was so impressed with the understandable explanations, that we switched science mid-stream. It was so much easier to understand!

    We did Physical Science and are now doing Biology. My daughter does the experiments each week with her cousins and another friend. We have had such fun! 😀
    Next year, I may have 7 kids! Woo-hoo!

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